


As Harsh as Truth

by zinger17



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Other, if you're a regina fan...this might not be for you, same goes for outlaw queen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-06
Updated: 2014-10-06
Packaged: 2018-02-20 03:51:25
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 469
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2413967
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zinger17/pseuds/zinger17
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>I will be as harsh as truth, and uncompromising as justice… I am in earnest, I will not equivocate, I will not excuse, I will not retreat a single inch, and I will be heard.</p><p>-William Lloyd Garrison</p>
            </blockquote>





	As Harsh as Truth

Marian Hood holds her head up high as she strides down the streets of Storybrooke.

There is no beautiful child, no doting husband at her side. She stands alone.

It’s quite amazing even to herself, this transformation that’s come over her since she’s been dragged into this strange, new land. 

Once she’d hurried along under the cover of darkness, afraid to be noticed, questioned; now, she walks in the bright light of day, seen and noticed by all. Once she’d whispered hasty, forbidden words of hope under her breath; now, she shouts loud, clear words of fury in the open. Once she’d cowered in fear of being separated from those she held dear; now, she stands tall in defiance as those she holds dear choose to separate themselves from her.

It is entirely appropriate that Marian means bitter.

Her anger is her shield, her suffering her sword. Robin had taught her well; she will not drop her guard, not even at his entreaty.

It is not just she who has transformed.

Is brutality regarded so lightly, life disregarded so easily that they could simply forget?

Or, perhaps time spent in the security, the ease of accessibility in this new, civilized world numbs one to the harsh cruelty of the past. At times it’s difficult even for her to recall the stabbing bite of going hungry as she browses the local stores, the humiliation of stiffly bowing before a tyrant as she simply ignores the new ruler of this tiny kingdom she had once looked upon with so much faith. 

But ease and comfort don’t right wrongs nor return what’s been lost.

So she continues to walk the streets. She learns. She adjusts. She memorizes the many, many new faces, studies the language. And in the dead of night, curled up in her tiny apartment, alone, she whispers their names in her heart over and over and over and over again.

Eileen. Muade. Bathilde. Marjorie. Eugene. Lois. Hesper.

Friends and neighbors, every one of them. Dead. Missing. Humiliated. Orphaned. Terrified.

She won’t forget. She won’t let them pass on without a whisper, disappear into history overlooked and unmourned.

She is not royal. She is not noble. She is not a princess. She is not a maid, wrapped up to fit neat and tidy into this story.

She is Marian Hood, princess of thieves. Mother, wife, daughter, friend.

No, she will not drop her guard. She will not forgive. She will not forget.

Her loved ones may have left her side but she doesn’t stand alone. The ghosts of the fallen, innocent in this seemingly eternal family conflict, rally behind her, the suffering of these new townspeople spur her on.

The truth will be known. They will be known. She will be known.

And that is not bitterness; That is justice.


End file.
